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Re: New piano comparison site

Re: New piano comparison site

Very informative. I've never heard all the samples play the same music side by side. There are definately some winners and some losers. And the soundfont 256meg pno ain't half bad. Say's it's free. Is that true? and if so where do I get it and what players read soundfont.

Re: New piano comparison site

Only a 72MB version of the Sound Creations Splendid Grand is free and downloadable from their site. The CD with the 256MB version is $14.95. It's a Soundfond version of a Steinway D produced for the S5000/6000 Akai samplers.

Re: New piano comparison site

Originally Posted by Earthling

I'd have to say, for a 256MB Grand Sample ... it sounds pretty decent to my ears!! Something about the NI Grand I like as well ...which I never heard before.

Yeah I got the same impression. I'm not a pianist so I based my judgement on what I remeber pianos sounding like when I play right next to them and I was suprised by the 265meg grand sample and by NI. Very realistic.

I was also impressed by the EW and Galaxy Steinways.

Suprisingly the only Bosendorfer I liked came from Ivory. But the rest of the pianos in Ivory didn't sound all that hot. I don't know though. Like I said I'm not a pianist and I refuse to play clarinet with any other piano than Steinway. So maybe I got a little biased over the years.

Anybody else have any opinions 'cause I got to buy one of these suckers soon.

Re: New piano comparison site

Unfortunately, you don't get release samples with soundfonts.
Nor do you get separate pedal up/down.
You don't have the possibility of round-robin samples such as in Kontakt and GS3. And string resonance modelling/approximation is impossible.

Soundfonts were terrific even up to two years ago, but we've moved on.

Re: New piano comparison site

QUOTE:
"Suprisingly the only Bosendorfer I liked came from Ivory. But the rest of the pianos in Ivory didn't sound all that hot. I don't know though. Like I said I'm not a pianist and I refuse to play clarinet with any other piano than Steinway. So maybe I got a little biased over the years."

You have to take into consideration that the Ivory Bosendorfer demo had room simulation reverb added, whereas the other Bosendorfer demos were recorded dry in these demos. Not at all an honest comparison.

Re: New piano comparison site

Originally Posted by Bardstown Audio

QUOTE:
"Suprisingly the only Bosendorfer I liked came from Ivory. But the rest of the pianos in Ivory didn't sound all that hot. I don't know though. Like I said I'm not a pianist and I refuse to play clarinet with any other piano than Steinway. So maybe I got a little biased over the years."

You have to take into consideration that the Ivory Bosendorfer demo had room simulation reverb added, whereas the other Bosendorfer demos were recorded dry in these demos. Not at all an honest comparison.

I would go even further and say that it is utterly pointless, even misleading, simply to load a given midi file into different samples. Only the sample on which the recording was originally made has any chance at all of sounding decent. With all the others, it's luck of the draw.

Why? The main problem is the velocity range within which the midi file was recorded. The Mozart (Sonata K330) midi file that was used is recorded in what, for my piano sample, is way, way too high a velocity range. You're essentially getting the mf to ff range of the piano sample on my sample; and when you listen to the result, it sounds like TIN CITY--horrible! Other sampled pianos, depending on what their velocity ranges look like, will sound completely different.

I notice, also, that folks are invited to take the midi file and send in their sampled piano versions of it to add to the comparison list. Well... come on... some guys are going to correct or adjust the velocity levels of the original midi file so that it sounds listenable. Others may just use it the way it is and hope for the best.

Re: New piano comparison site

It's a bit of nonsense to showcase the SAM bass piano and having that same part playing 3 or 4 octaves lower, since that's not at all what the bass piano would be used for. Arpeggios and chords don't sound the same when being played really low, because of the frequencies being so close to each other.